TRAIL-RUNNING

I booked a trail run in the gorgeous Black River Gorges reserve with Yanature, and had Yan himself as a guide, the godfather of Mauritian trail. I am ten years Yan's junior and probably two minutes slower than him per kilometer of trail, but he was very insistent that I stay out of the red for the sake of my overall enjoyment of the morning, and he was very intuitive in setting a comfortable pace. He was also great on trail orientation, giving very precise guidance on the distance and demands of each new section - particularly welcome on the single track climbs through thickets of Chinese guava, which do not allow for any topographical perspective. Being a big bloke and a skier I enjoy going downhill fast, but rain in the preceding week had created mud slicks the likes of which you just don't see in my native Cape Town, and without making a fuss of it Yan pointed treacherous sections out ahead of time. From our highest point - a conical peak the name of which I have forgotten - we descended on a little used trail Yan described as "super-technical", and the slope was obscenely steep but densely packed guava trees on either side enable a kind of forward leaning free fall, with the hands and arms working as hard as the legs at times, yellow fruits tumbling ahead of us on the trail. The guava is a fierce invasive, but tunneling through it induces a dream-like state similar to night running - an experience I will remember for a long time. Our run concluded with a dip in the Riviere Noire, and it was far and away the best use I made of any morning spent in Mauritius. Highly, highly recommended.